Exodus: Machine War: Book 3: Death From Above
Page 36
One ten millionth of a second after the ship started to transit the wormhole aboard went through the wormhole it was transiting. At that point what had been matter became energy, neutrons, protons and electrons shooting out in a cone at point nine nine nine light. The force of the explosion was over six hundred pentatons, six hundred billion megatons, twice as powerful as the blast that had destroyed a good portion of a Ca’cadasan fleet some time ago. It was the most destructive blast that intelligent life in the known Universe had ever propagated.
Not all of it went into the Machine fleet. Almost thirty percent came out the other end of the transit wormhole. Another twenty percent came out the far end of the transiting wormhole. But fifty percent was still over three hundred billion megatons, more than enough.
The three closest planet killers came apart in the blast wave. Not immediately. It took all of three seconds for the blast to eat through a hundred kilometers of matter, and when it was through all that was left of were hundreds of trillions of tons of particles, interspersed with millions of larger pieces. The two further planet killers were far enough away that they didn’t sustain the total destruction of the others. If the blast had gone off closer, they would have gone the same way as the others. Instead they were blasted deeply by the force, eating into the hundred kilometer wide hulls, scooping them out until they resembled huge cups, everything gone to the center of the ships.
The lesser Machine vessels didn’t stand a chance. All were vaporized in the blast. Gone without a trace.
The bridge erupted in cheers as the graviton emissions of the Machine fleet disappeared. Slavista stared at the plot, not really believing that it had worked.
“Good job, Commodore,” said Admiral Bednarczyk, walking up and putting a hand on his shoulder. “You are now officially Shiva, the destroyer of worlds.”
Slavista nodded, recalling the quote from one of his courses at the academy. While he did not destroy a world, he had released enough power to scour one clean of life, all the way down to the bedrock. It was a sobering thought. It was a destruction he would be willing to visit on the lifeless horrors that were the Machines, but it went against his warrior’s heart and the honor of his people to even contemplate using it against the worlds of thinking beings. His people were warriors, but warriors fought warriors, and didn’t visit war on the nests of the enemy. They didn’t go after the weak and the helpless.
The Gryphon looked at all the smiling faces, and realized that in this case it had been a good thing. There was no telling how many sentient beings would have died this day if not for the swift application of that force they had unleashed. Possibly all of them, the entire system, the fleet, the industrial stations, even the sparsely inhabited world that was being made ready for habitation.
“Message coming in for the entire fleet, ma’am,” called out one of the com officers at one of the stations to the Commodore’s right.
“Who from?” asked the Admiral, a frown creasing her face.
“It’s the Emperor, ma’am. And the message from the other end is that he wants to address the entire fleet.”
“Well, I guess if that’s what he wants, that’s what he gets,” growled the Admiral, shaking her head.
“He gave you everything you asked for, ma’am,” said Slavista, looking back at her.
“You’re right, Commodore,” she said, patting him again on the shoulder. “And I’m being an ungrateful bitch to not want him to have his sound bite. Go ahead and connect him,” she said, looking over at the Com Officer.
“One minute, ma’am” said the Officer, holding up a finger.
Bednarczyk let out a huff of breath, then shook her head. “I know. We serve at his pleasure. But I would just like to take a little time to celebrate the fact that everyone under my command will still be alive at the end of the day, including my own insignificant ass.”
Slavista gave the open beaked grin of his kind. The Emperor had given them this weapon, but the Admiral, probably the best tactician he had ever served under, had come up with the plan and had placed the control of the wormhole in the Gryphon’s hands.
“Admiral Bednarczyk,” said the voice of the Emperor as his oversized image appeared on the central holo. “Congratulations on a masterfully executed ambush. By now most of you know the power of the weapon we unleashed at the edge of your system, enough to take out five of the enemy planet killers and the almost thousand ships escorting them. The same weapon was used some time ago to take out most of a Ca’cadasan battle fleet on the other side of their empire. I won’t go into details about the process, which is still considered top secret, except to say that it is a very powerful weapon of limited utility. In certain situations, it can be a game changer. In others, it is all but useless. We cannot even be sure if we will be able to use it again against the Machines. It is most probable that they were not able to transmit what happened while it was happening. Even a computer, even one of our most advanced systems, would not be able to process information at those speeds, much less connect to a com link and send it off, especially as a grav pulse communications wave. It is doubtful they could have done so, so it is most unlikely that their headquarters, or whatever AI they have that fulfills that function, has gotten this information. But they will know that something has happened to their fleet when it fails to contact them.
“Now for some good news. With great difficulty we have been able to crack into the memory of the AI you people captured. As we thought, the technology of the Machines is well behind ours, at least a century back. Unfortunately, they still have some advantages over us, not being constrained by our organic limitations. And their industrial base is massive, almost a sixth of that of the Empire, manned by tireless robots that work around the clock, every day of the year. They will replace the ships you destroyed today in no time, with one exception.”
“And what the hell is that?” the Admiral mumbled under her breath, close enough to Slavista that he was able to make out her words.
“As far as we can determine, they only had ten of the planet killers. After the battles they have fought against us make that one. There are six more under construction, but even the most advanced is years away from completion. It takes over a decade to build each one, even with the heightened productivity of the Machines.
“Why am I telling you this? Why not just communicate with your leaders, and let them disseminate to you what they think you need to know? Because I want you to know what is at stake, and what we are going to do about it. At the moment the Cacas are not pressing us on any of our fronts. They are still pressing the Klavarta, the other human empire, but we are reinforcing them as much as we can so they can weather the storm. Which gives us enough ships to reinforce your front. In the next week the ships will start coming through the wormholes, until your strength is doubled. The next convoy of wormholes will arrive within the next two days, and we are dispatching a hundred more to your front. You will have enough of a force to deal with almost anything the Machines can send at you.
“But you will not stay on the defensive. As soon as your force is organized, every hyper VII ship at the front will scout into enemy territory in search and destroy teams, finding, fixing and destroying every Machine squadron they can find. Where the enemy is too strong, the follow up force, hyper VI battleships carrying our latest weapons, will snuff out their nests one by one. We are taking the war to the Machines, and when we are done, the problem will be solved.” He looked straight out of the holo, as if looking into the eyes of everyone he was talking to. The way the holos worked, in concert with the implants that every Imperial military member carried in their brains, that was exactly how it was perceived by everyone watching. “I am proud of you, all of you. Now make me prouder. Sean out.”
* * *
The holo died, and the Com Officer looked back at the Admiral. “The Emperor wants to talk with you in private, ma’am.”
“I’ll take it in my quarters,” she replied, turning and walking from the bridge.
“It was a good rah rah speech, your Majesty,” she said, nodding toward her chair and receiving a nod in return. She took the few steps to the comfortable lounger and fell into it.
“Tired, Admiral?”
“Looking to relieve me, your Majesty?”
“Not at all, Admiral. I can’t think of another officer I would rather have out there.”
“And of course you wouldn’t want Lenkowski or Mgonda out here. They’re too valuable where they are.”
“Of course. They’re my Nimitz and Halsey. You’re not going to be my Grant or Sherman, but you sure as hell can be my Sheridan.”
Beata smiled at the reference. The Emperor had just told her that she would not be one of his major go to commanders, but she would fulfill the role of an important theater leader, maybe not in the same league as the others, but still vital to the overall war effort.
“And once you win that fight out there, you can come back and lead a battle fleet against the Cacas.”
“You know that’s not going to be easy, your Majesty. Despite your speech, it’s going to take some time to get all of these things. And we have to make sure that none of them get away, or we’re going to be facing the same problem in the future. This isn’t like trying to isolate a trio of star systems, and they were able to get away that time too.”
Sean rubbed his temples, and she could see the fatigue in his face as well. Only it wasn’t her place to ask him about it, or to try and give him advice. “I know, Admiral. I know.” He paused for a second to get a breath, then looked her straight in the eyes. “I want you to use the Exploration Command ships to do a scout of the entire area. We need to know where every single one of their systems are, as well as those of any intelligent species that may still be extant in the region. Any with sufficient tech are to be brought into an alliance.” He raised his hand as she opened her mouth to speak. “I know you’re not a diplomat, and I don’t expect you to become one. I need you as you are, a take no shit commander who will get the job done. But you have trained first contact diplomats in your command, in the explorer captains. Use them, and don’t try to tell them their jobs.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your job is to go for the metaphorical throats of the Machines. I want you to be aggressive, audacious, but also I want you to take care. I know those are contradictory directives, but even though I want you to destroy the Machines, I don’t want severe casualties here. The main enemy is still out there, and they will be coming back. So I need you to give me those ships back when we need them.”
“How long?” asked Beata, thinking both of the returning Cacas and how much time she would have to use the reinforcements the Emperor was going to send.
“The analysts are telling me six months, the time it will take them to bring forces out from the center of their Empire to the borders of mine. Maybe as few as five. So you have four. Four months. I don’t expect you to have destroyed them in that limited amount of time. But I do expect that you can make major inroads into taking out most of their industrial base, as well as the weight of their fleet.”
“I’ll do everything I can, your Majesty.”
“You’ll be getting some new hardware and weapons along with the ships. Stuff we haven’t used against the Cacas, yet. Your fleet will be the test bed for them.”
Great, thought the Admiral, stifling a groan. New stuff that had never been used could mean war winning weapons. Or it could mean weapons that didn’t perform in the field the way the tech wizards had thought they would. Which could lead to disaster.
“You can, of course, use them as you feel fit,” said the Emperor as if reading her mind. “But if they do work out in the preliminary actions, it will give us good data to use in our tactical planning against the Cacas.” Sean looked down for a moment, then met her with a fierce gaze.
“Do you have any children, Admiral?”
He knows I don’t from my records, she thought, knowing he must have a point to make. “I never found the time, your Majesty.” That was technically true, but also somewhat of an evasion. In this day and age, when almost every human could look forward to over two hundred useful adult years, people could take twenty years to raise a child or three, and then get on with their life, often in a second or third career.
“If I didn’t have an obligation to the Empire to leave an heir, I wouldn’t have them during this time of crisis. You know why, Admiral?”
Beata shook her head, not sure where this was going.
“Because chances are they would not live to reach adulthood. So many enemies. The Cacas, the Fenri, the Lasharans, and of course the inevitable pirates that seem to come out of the woodwork like roaches whenever the Fleet is otherwise occupied with external enemies. And now the Machines. Too many enemies. And all of the children of our Empire are depending on you, Admiral, to take one of those enemies off the board. So they can grow up to live their lives in safety, and someday take our places.”
Corny, thought the Admiral. But it got to her nonetheless. “I won’t fail you, your Majesty.”
“I know you won’t. Admiral. If I had any doubts, you would not be the hammer I will use to pound those robotic murderers to scrap.”
The holo died then, the Emperor gone. He had imparted his message to the fleet, then to her individually. Four months, she thought, wondering when the first of the reinforcements would arrive.
“Admiral. We have ships transiting the gate from Sector I command.”
That soon. Well, we don’t have time to waste. “Make sure to give me a list of ships and commanders as soon as they come through. As well as squadron, task force and task group commanders. Inform them all that we will have a fleet wide meeting tomorrow at this time.” That would be time enough to get them together and organized, commanders and missions assigned. Four months. Will that be enough time? She knew it had to be, since the supreme ruler of the Empire had ordered it to be.
Epilogue
The AI really wasn’t sure what had happened. It knew that the first force it had sent at the human industrial system had been destroyed. It even had a good idea what had happened to it, and an idea of the weapons used against that force. It knew that both forces that had been sent against the world with the more primitive culture being protected by the humans had been destroyed. The AI knew that the first planet killer that had gone for that world had entered the system of the new black hole that was nearby, chasing a human ship that had the hyper VII drive it needed to prosecute this war. The planet killer had gotten close to the black hole, and had simply disappeared. As far as the AI knew it had been destroyed in that system, probably having to do with that point mass it was heading towards. The second force had been lost in a fleet battle, the humans pulling some new tricks out of their hats. Those tricks would never be quite as useful in the future, now that the Machines realized what the tactics were. But that made it wonder what was next.
The first force that had attacked the human industrial system had been taken out by some of the surprising weapons that the humans had used later. That, and some tactical brilliance, had destroyed two more planet killers, as well as capturing one, including the AI of that ship. This was a disaster, destroying almost a third of the planet killer force of the Machine fleet. The capture was even worse, giving the organics great insight into the Machine technology.
But this latest fiasco had been an unmitigated disaster. Five planet killers, the most powerful force the Machines had ever sent into combat, and it just disappeared. There hadn’t even been time for it to transmit what was happening. It had last sent back through grav pulse that it was entering normal space, then scanning the system. Then, nothing. The AI didn’t really have an imagination, but it did have many data points it could compare things to. And there was nothing that corresponded with a force of the toughest vessels it had ever heard of simply vanishing. The conclusi
on was that the humans had some kind of weapon that could take out all of those ships in an instant. What kind of weapon? It had no data that gave it any kind of conjecture as to what it could be. Only that they had some extremely powerful weapon, and that it needed to find out what it was before it could formulate any strategy and tactics to counter it.
One other thing it knew. It only had one of the planet killers left, and it didn’t seem wise to send that last vessel into combat with the humans until it knew what had taken out the other enormous vessels. Not because there was any concern for the number of robots aboard that ship, not like the organics seemed to care about their individual biological units. But the resources put into those ships were significant, representing thousands of other ships each. And it would be years before it had more of the ships.
The AI considered for a moment whether it should even continue production of those planet killers. If they were just enormous targets that waisted vital resources, there was no need to deploy them. It finished that calculation in microseconds, and sent out the command to the production units in this system, cancelling the three ships that were in the early stages of production and affirming the continuation of the single planet killer that was three quarters complete. The same message would go out to the other industrial systems, and only one of the other planet killers would be completed. Those cancelled would not be disassembled for the time being, in case it came to the point where they again became useful, and not just targets. It would not be logical to undo the effort that had gone into them until the weapon the humans had used to destroy that kind of vessel was known. But it also didn’t make sense to make ships that could go up in one hit of whatever the humans had, when they could build thousands of ships and spread them out enough to take thousands of those weapons to destroy.